Yvet didn't like Bo.

First of all, there was his face. And what a stupid face it was.

She hated looking at it. Talking to it. Thinking about it. In general, it and he was the worst.

And now, she – of all dragons – was helping him hunt something. Not only that, he would be the one to kill it. Not her, the mighty dragon.

This rankled her.

Not only was she weaker than him… allegedly. But now he was hunting for her.

This could not stand, she thought.

As she made her way around the ravine - trying to get the hang of her half-gliding half-running technique – Yvet started thinking of ways to help out in the fight.

If only her damn fire-breathing worked, it would be a sinch.

But it didn't.

There was something in her throat, or at least, that's what it felt like. Something was lodged in there, some sort of interference that stopped her breathing properly. She had been trying to clear both her nostrils for two days but had only managed to breathe fire out of one, not the other.

She shook her head.

This was normal, she told herself. Every dragon has a bedding-in-period. She would get over this.

Mid-jump, she felt something was off. Twisting her body to look behind her, she saw a massive creature erupt from the sand. Its body was a dull yellowish grey and very flat, allowing it to skim under the desert's surface with little resistance.

The second it appeared, she recognised it as a ray… or rather, the sand shark. She was still only halfway around the ravine and hadn't expected to encounter it so soon - leaving her off-balance.

As the shark shot towards her, its mouth distended – jaws flashing out from under its body and extending towards her.

Rays didn't do that. She thought.

As she hung in mid-air - watching death near her – Yvet realised that Bo might have been right about the sand shark being too strong. This realisation had come too late, however.

She awkwardly flapped her wings, inwardly grimacing at the unresponsiveness. The movement felt gangly and uncoordinated, leaving her to lurch out of the way – rather than gracefully dodging the attack.

Yvet's right wing gave out, sending her sprawling to the ground. She tumbled to a stop and jumped up, skittering to the side as the shark ploughed through where she had just been.

As she took off back the way she came, Yvet was left praying that Bo had finished his preparations. If not… things wouldn't go well.

"Bo!" She called out, projecting her voice across the desert.

There was no reply, of course. That idiot hadn't figured out how to talk with his mind yet. No surprise there, given that he was human.

All she could do was give him a brief warning and try not to die herself, "I'm coming back now! It's right behind me!"

***

Bo stuffed the first shoe back on, having finished his modifications. He hadn't had time to start the second one, leaving him in limbo.

He glanced down, seeing the spikes protruding from the sole of his shoe. They were at least three inches long and wickedly sharp. Sharp enough to pierce the sand shark's skin, he hoped.

His other shoe remained untouched, and he could only pray that it wouldn't have any adverse side effects.

In the distance, he saw a small dust cloud rising at the ravine's edge. Something was coming his way, and fast.

A moment later - Yvet crossed a dune and rushed into view. At this point, Bo started to think his plan might not be such a good idea.

The sand shark plunged over the dune after her, crashing forward as it sent waves of sand spilling in its wake.

This definitely wasn't a good idea.

He steeled himself, gripping the dragon's tooth tightly. It wasn't particularly big, but it was sharp. Hopefully, that was enough.

Yvet barrelled towards him. Having abandoned her half-running, half-gliding thing – she was racing forwards like any four-legged animal ought. The sand shark lunged at her, its mouth shooting out and snapping closed right behind her tail.

Bo winced. A few more inches and she would have been swallowed whole.

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She shot towards him and scampered up the steep boulder, losing no speed on the almost vertical rockface. "Ready?" She wheezed.

"No."

"That sounds like your problem,"

Bo stared down at the sand shark – which had begun clawing its way up the boulder. Its fins ended in razor-sharp hooks that carved divots in the rock, letting it haul its massive bulk higher.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Bo's breathing calmed as his focus centred entirely on the shark. He couldn't allow any distractions. Any slip-ups would mean death. And he had way too many things he wanted to do before dying.

The shark was halfway up the rock face when Bo started hurling stones at it. He aimed for the eyes, hoping to blind the beast. Unfortunately, the sand shark - like most desert creatures - had incredibly tough eyelids. Eyelids that sent the rocks skittering away without effect.

"Worth a shot," He grumbled, gripping the dragon's tooth tighter.

He clenched his teeth and ran, jumping off the boulder and sailing past the shark on his way down. As he shot past, Bo held out the dragon's tooth – letting it rake down the shark's leathery back.

The sheer momentum nearly ripped it from his grip – and would have, if it were him a week ago – but Bo was stronger now and held on for dear life, carving a deep trench in the shark's back.

It screeched and let go of the rock, plummeting towards Bo, who had landed in a heap.

He rolled out of the way, feeling the ground tremble as the shark landed. Hard.

Before the shark could throw itself at him, Bo danced back – dodging the mouth that came snapping to greet him.

He felt adrenaline run riot throughout his body, and his heart rate started to soar. He had never done anything like this. Nothing even came close.

The shark flipped itself over and dove under the sand, disappearing like a pebble thrown in a lake.

"Damn," Bo spat, jumping up and grabbing the boulder. He quickly shimmied up its side, finding himself at the top once again as the shark burrowed out of the sand and shot into the air, torpedoing straight past where he had just been.

As it reached the top of its parabola and began to arc back down, Bo leapt off the boulder and pressed his legs together. He crashed into the shark's back, feet first – sending both of them sprawling to the desert floor.

This time, his opponent was the first to recover, flailing to get Bo off its back. He felt it writhe beneath him and grimaced, holding onto its fin for support.

His shoe was the only reason he hadn't completely fallen off the creature's back. Spiked as it was, he had managed to find purchase on the shark's smooth hide by piercing it - the spikes digging in and holding his foot in place.

His other leg flailed uselessly as the shark bucked, but Bo wasn't in danger of falling. Not immediately, anyway.

Gritting his teeth so he wouldn't bite off his tongue – Bo bent down and started scratching at one of the shark's fins. Its surface was smooth and leathery, thwarting the dragon's tooth in its attempts.

He could only use one hand to hold the dragon's tooth, with the other clenching the fin tightly. This left him unable to generate the force necessary to break the skin – locking him in a stalemate with the shark.

A stalemate which finally broke when he threw caution to the wind and let go of the fin. With both hands clenching the dragon's tooth, he lunged forward and sliced the fin off entirely.

With a bellow, the shark twisted and threw him off its back. Bo hurtled across the desert and landed hard, feeling something snap. Something that shouldn't be snapping.

He tried to get up – but his ankle was screaming at him. All it took was a glance to see it was broken. Having been stuck inside the shark when it moved, his foot had been twisted the wrong way round – with his ankle snapping so severely that bone poked out through the skin.

Bo looked at the bloody mess and whimpered, trying to crawl out of the way as the shark neared.

With a missing fin and a massive gash down its back - it was losing blood. Fast. This made its progress slow and laboured, as it was forced to drag its massive bulk with a single fin.

Unfortunately, in a competition of survivability, the shark would beat Bo a hundred times out of a hundred. Despite its grievous wounds, it just kept coming, relentlessly dragging itself towards him – even with one fin missing.

He tried to stand.

Failed.

He tried to crawl.

Collapsed.

He tried to ward off the shark with his weapon.

Ignored.

As it neared him, his life flashed before his eyes. Every mistake. Every fight with Fran. Every missed opportunity. Every time he should have said something but didn't. It was all there, taunting him.

Right as the shark's mouth shot towards him, a red, scaly blur landed on its head.

"WATCH OUT!" Yvet screamed.

Bo snapped back to reality, leaping to the side as the shark's jaws closed on a mouthful of sand.

He glanced up, noting that Yvet was on its head and coughing violently. It looked like she tried to do something, but Bo wasn't sure what.

With a grunt, he smothered the pain in his ankle and rolled under a blow as the shark's hook scythed the ground where he had just been. He felt dry wind rush past his face and saw the gleam as sunlight reflected off the hook's metallic surface. Close. Too close.

On its back, Yvet was hacking up something. She sounded sick.

Bo couldn't tell if she was alright, but he had to trust her. There was no other way he was getting out of this situation.

He rolled again, feeling the shark's hot, rotting breath as its mouth snapped at him. Behind him, a trail of blood was left in the sand, originating from Bo's ankle. It drew an erratic painting of pain and desperation, following after him doggedly, and all Bo could do was watch as the uncaring desert sponged up his life.

Just as he began to feel lightheaded, Yvet made a retching sound – vomiting a pale sticky liquid onto the shark's back. It came out in a violent torrent that made him shudder. How had she even fit all of that inside her?

The shark opened its mouth wide, letting him see down its cavernous throat. The stench was overwhelming, and he could see bits of flesh from the last creature it had eaten…

Bo's eyes widened as an idea came to him—a brilliant, crazy idea.

He fumbled in his pocket, bringing out the leather pouch full of Horus shoots. His clumsy fingers struggled to open the binding as the shark neared – but he finally got it, reaching in and grabbing one of them.

Staring down its open mouth, Bo threw a Horus shoot inside – watching it sail down the shark's gullet.

For a moment, everything was still. Both Bo and the shark were frozen in place.

Had It worked?

The shark spasmed and let out an unholy screech, flailing like it was being electrocuted. Yvet - who was on its back – dug her claws in and opened her mouth wide, wider than she ever had before.

She began to make a startling whistle – like a kettle boiling over. The incredibly high-pitch made Bo's ears feel like they were getting stabbed.

Before too long, the shark managed to purge the Horus shoot – but It was left spent, lying exhausted with no fight left to give.

Bo wasn't much better, sprawled in a bedraggled heap by the shark's side while his ankle pulsed with red-hot fury. He stuffed every Horus shoot he had into his mouth, and could only pray that would be enough.

The only thing that could still fight was Yvet. And that's exactly what she was doing.

Her scales had started to glow like molten metal – and the high-pitched whistle had gone beyond the human capacity to observe.

All Bo could do was gape as she aimed her mouth at the back of the shark's head and bathed it in a roaring inferno.